1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices and methods for training individuals to treat an individual with a hemorrhaging injury.
2. Description of Related Art
Fatalities resulting from prehospital blood loss caused by limb wounds can be reduced with proper tourniquet placement and use. The proper placement and use of a tourniquet is critical to its efficacy, but difficult to learn. If a tourniquet is placed too close to the wound, it may be ineffective at stopping blood loss. Conversely, if the tourniquet is placed too far from the wound, use of the tourniquet may sacrifice more of the limb than is needed to stop the hemorrhaging. Overly tight application of a tourniquet may result in unnecessary loss of the tourniqueted limb. Conversely, overly loose application of a tourniquet may fail to stop the hemorrhaging and result in shock and/or death.
In view of the importance of proper tourniquet use, it is important to properly train individuals who might encounter and need to treat such wounds (e.g., soldiers, paramedics, civilians in hazardous environments, etc.). Conventionally, the use of a tourniquet has been taught by an instructor using a mannequin. When a student practices applying a tourniquet to the mannequin, the instructor must carefully supervise to ensure proper placement and application of the tourniquet. The required supervision limits class size, instructor feedback, and the amount of hands-on practice that each student receives.
Conventional tourniquet training mannequins may include a hemorrhage simulator that pumps fluid (e.g., clear or red water) out of the simulated wound until the instructor determines that the tourniquet is properly applied and manually turns off the pump.
It has also been difficult to effectively train personnel in the control of deep bleeding hemorrhage, particularly in core body locations where a tourniquet cannot be used.
Teaching limb or deep bleeding hemorrhage control is difficult without using a physical specimen. Use of a physical hemorrhage surrogate may require a specific model for each type of injury and the use of a blood analog that must be pumped to the injury site. If a pulse is to be used for assessment of the hemorrhage treatment a specific pulse device must be placed in a specific location to be felt. If objective quantitative measurement of the physical characteristics of the trainees' contact with the surrogate is required, it is difficult to effectively instrument for this and it is not readily available in commercial training surrogates. Therefore, teaching a diversity of hemorrhage control techniques is a costly and complex undertaking because of obtaining, using, and maintaining a number of teaching models. In addition, there are limits on injury complexity that can be represented with physical models and linking time progression of the patient physiologic response to the nature of the injury and the specific actions taken by the learner is difficult to do. Finally, assessment of trainee performance is relegated to being a qualitative assessment of a trained instructor rather than an objective, reliable, consistent, quantitative measurement.